Lead AI Architect

About McDonald’s :

One of the world’s largest employers with locations in more than 100 countries, McDonald’s Corporation has corporate opportunities in Hyderabad. Our global offices serve as dynamic innovation and operations hubs, designed to expand McDonald's global talent base and in-house expertise. Our new office in Hyderabad will bring together knowledge across business, technology, analytics, and AI, accelerating our ability to deliver impactful solutions for the business and our customers across the globe.

Position Summary :

Sr Tech Architect – AI

Who we’re looking for :

We’re seeking a Sr. AI Architect to join our team, focusing on the exciting frontier of AI. You will be responsible for defining key research directions, adopting or inventing new machine learning techniques, conducting rigorous experiments, publishing results, and ensuring that research is translated into practice. You will develop long-term strategies, persuade teams to adopt those strategies, propose goals, and deliver on them. You will also participate in organizational planning, hiring, mentorship, and leadership development.

At McDonald’s scale, you will be technically fearless and passionate about building AI systems that are not only scientifically advanced but also operationally reliable, globally scalable, and impactful across millions of customer and crew interactions. You will serve as a key technical and scientific resource in full-cycle development (from conception and design to testing, deployment, and ongoing optimization), ensuring that AI solutions directly enhance the speed, consistency, and personalization of the McDonald’s experience.

Primary Responsibilities :

• Architect, design, and implement end-to-end AI solutions across domains such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech, recommendation, and generative AI.
• Lead the development of scalable Deep Learning platforms and agentic / AI-driven workflows, ensuring reliability, performance.
• Drive experimentation and applied research, translating new deep learning methods into robust, production-ready capabilities.
• Partner with researchers, engineers, and product leaders to build reusable AI components, frameworks, and APIs that accelerate adoption across business units.
• Establish architectural standards for ML model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring at scale.
• Optimize performance, safety, and governance of AI systems through structured evaluation frameworks and continuous monitoring.
• Mentor senior engineers and research leads, fostering technical excellence, architectural thinking, and delivery discipline across teams.
• Contribute to organizational planning, talent development, and long-term AI strategy, ensuring systems are both innovative and enterprise ready.

What You'll Bring :

Bonus points if you have any of the following :

Work location : Hyderabad, India

Work hours : Monday to Friday, 8 hours / day

Work pattern : Full time role.

Work mode : Hybrid.

Additional Information :

McDonald’s is committed to providing qualified individuals with disabilities with reasonable [LG1] accommodations to perform the essential functions of their jobs. McDonald’s provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, disability status, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, protected military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

McDonald’s Capability Center India Private Limited (“McDonald’s in India”) is a proud equal opportunity employer and is committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. At McDonald’s in India, employment decisions are based on merit, job requirements, and business needs, and all qualified candidates are considered for employment. McDonald’s in India does not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, age, gender, marital status, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, political affiliation, veteran status, disability status, medical history, parental status, genetic information, or any other basis protected under state or local laws.

Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.